Last night’s Full Moon was troubled by rain showers going and coming and a temperature that was stubbornly mid-40s F. Tonight’s Mentor’s Circle planning session looks to be drier and colder, but not by much on either parameter. I really need to update my gear for inclement weather, when things are like they were yesterday I can either stay dry but be cold, or I can stay pretty warm but still be wet and chilled when I get home. My rain gear won’t fit over my cold-weather gear and still keep me dry, and most of my cold-weather gear is not water-proof. My gloves are water-resistant enough to keep my hands dry in the conditions we had yesterday, but the rest of my gear keeps me dry for as long as it takes for the rain to soak through. That’s another thing about living in the suburbs of Hell. Here people tend to use umbrellas rather than waterproof clothing if they go out when it’s both cold and wet, and you can’t do that on a bike, if for no other reason that you need both hands to work the controls for the gears and brakes.
I have been getting a lot of miles on Blue so far this year and I’m running ahead of my club average, at least until the Clown Ride gets going again. Of the bikes people ride in my club, Blue is the “most normal” of them. Blue looks similar to Gigi, except a bit more upright and with 26″ wheels on both ends, and he now has those kitty-litter buckets where Gigi had soft motorcycle saddlebags. And Blue is blue where Gigi was a red-orange color. Gigi just barely fit on the bike racks on the front of the local buses, but Blue hangs off the end and rests on the frame rather than the tires. And neither one was particularly “normal”.
Up first because it amused me is a wreck in Enn Zed where the cyclist was uninjured, because his vehicle was the only one that wasn’t hit. Five injured in four accidents A cyclist was going up a steep hill, followed by a heavy semi that could hardly go any faster than the bike, blocking traffic from seeing or hitting the cyclist. A slightly less loaded truck was after the first one, and then a very light truck rammed the second truck, knocking it into the first truck before running off the road and trapping the driver in a ditch. The cyclist heard the noise and talked to the driver of the first truck without ever knowing of the existence of the third truck and continued on until stopped by police. This was the wreck described at the bottom of the article, worth reading through to get to the good part.
A kind of wreck that fortunately doesn’t happen very often, but unfortunately is becoming more common. Man shot while riding bike in Ballico area Yes, another cyclist shot for riding in the wrong neighborhood wearing the wrong color shorts in this case. Other cases were about the jersey. Not much you can do about this kind of thing.
Another left cross in CO, with slightly better results this time. Cyclists injured after hitting car and the same article with a different headline and different comments UPDATE: Cyclists injured after colliding with car near Horsetooth Reservoir here’s hoping for a quick and complete recovery for the injured cyclist taken to hospital, and a long driving ban for the operator of the weapon vehicle.
And last links are from the Great White North, as the driver that assaulted the Kanata 5 is sentenced. First the victims’ statements about what their lives have become since the wreck. Loss of freedom, independence is toughest hurdle for injured cyclists What happened to the guy that got it the worst gets to me, because I was so close to that same existence after my wreck. Actually I’m about halfway between the guy that has trouble at work concentrating and the guy that has the worst of the injuries, and all 3 of us have our biggest problems from brain injury, not the stuff that leaves the big scars. The actual sentence. Ottawa driver gets 2 years for injuring 5 cyclists had he used a less-deadly weapon like an assault rifle he would have gotten decades in prison, but because his weapon of choice was a motor vehicle he got 2 years… And I can’t believe that the fact there were 5 victims didn’t cause his sentence to be stacked. He was convicted of 10 counts, but only sentenced on 2 of them.TANJ!
And that’s all I have for you today.
Billed @$0.02, Opus
32.928601
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Witch on a Bicycle 
Last night a soggy and chilly Full Moon Service, tonight a cold and damp Mentor’s Circle, and the Feed
Last night’s Full Moon was troubled by rain showers going and coming and a temperature that was stubbornly mid-40s F. Tonight’s Mentor’s Circle planning session looks to be drier and colder, but not by much on either parameter. I really need to update my gear for inclement weather, when things are like they were yesterday I can either stay dry but be cold, or I can stay pretty warm but still be wet and chilled when I get home. My rain gear won’t fit over my cold-weather gear and still keep me dry, and most of my cold-weather gear is not water-proof. My gloves are water-resistant enough to keep my hands dry in the conditions we had yesterday, but the rest of my gear keeps me dry for as long as it takes for the rain to soak through. That’s another thing about living in the suburbs of Hell. Here people tend to use umbrellas rather than waterproof clothing if they go out when it’s both cold and wet, and you can’t do that on a bike, if for no other reason that you need both hands to work the controls for the gears and brakes.
I have been getting a lot of miles on Blue so far this year and I’m running ahead of my club average, at least until the Clown Ride gets going again. Of the bikes people ride in my club, Blue is the “most normal” of them. Blue looks similar to Gigi, except a bit more upright and with 26″ wheels on both ends, and he now has those kitty-litter buckets where Gigi had soft motorcycle saddlebags. And Blue is blue where Gigi was a red-orange color. Gigi just barely fit on the bike racks on the front of the local buses, but Blue hangs off the end and rests on the frame rather than the tires. And neither one was particularly “normal”.
Up first because it amused me is a wreck in Enn Zed where the cyclist was uninjured, because his vehicle was the only one that wasn’t hit. Five injured in four accidents A cyclist was going up a steep hill, followed by a heavy semi that could hardly go any faster than the bike, blocking traffic from seeing or hitting the cyclist. A slightly less loaded truck was after the first one, and then a very light truck rammed the second truck, knocking it into the first truck before running off the road and trapping the driver in a ditch. The cyclist heard the noise and talked to the driver of the first truck without ever knowing of the existence of the third truck and continued on until stopped by police. This was the wreck described at the bottom of the article, worth reading through to get to the good part.
A kind of wreck that fortunately doesn’t happen very often, but unfortunately is becoming more common. Man shot while riding bike in Ballico area Yes, another cyclist shot for riding in the wrong neighborhood wearing the wrong color shorts in this case. Other cases were about the jersey. Not much you can do about this kind of thing.
Another left cross in CO, with slightly better results this time. Cyclists injured after hitting car and the same article with a different headline and different comments UPDATE: Cyclists injured after colliding with car near Horsetooth Reservoir here’s hoping for a quick and complete recovery for the injured cyclist taken to hospital, and a long driving ban for the operator of the weapon vehicle.
And last links are from the Great White North, as the driver that assaulted the Kanata 5 is sentenced. First the victims’ statements about what their lives have become since the wreck. Loss of freedom, independence is toughest hurdle for injured cyclists What happened to the guy that got it the worst gets to me, because I was so close to that same existence after my wreck. Actually I’m about halfway between the guy that has trouble at work concentrating and the guy that has the worst of the injuries, and all 3 of us have our biggest problems from brain injury, not the stuff that leaves the big scars. The actual sentence. Ottawa driver gets 2 years for injuring 5 cyclists had he used a less-deadly weapon like an assault rifle he would have gotten decades in prison, but because his weapon of choice was a motor vehicle he got 2 years… And I can’t believe that the fact there were 5 victims didn’t cause his sentence to be stacked. He was convicted of 10 counts, but only sentenced on 2 of them.TANJ!
And that’s all I have for you today.
Billed @$0.02, Opus
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Tagged cycling life, cyclist injured, Don't read the comments, Enn Zed, hit from behind, hit-and-run, Left cross/right hook, Something smells, stupid drivers, stupid LEO, stupid politicians, updates, waste of human skin